Life's an Adventure
by KelpySpook
Summary: What if Flame Princess didn't overthrow her dad in the episode Earth and Water? Instead she went off on her own, becoming an adventurer in the vast lands outside of Ooo. Five years later, how will her absence have effected Ooo? And how will everyone react to her eventual return? AU. Eventual Finn/Flame Princess.


**This story takes place as an alternative to the events in the episode Earth and Water. Basically, it happens right after Frost and Fire, to give you some sort of timeline.**

* * *

A flaming girl sat in the woods, holding her knees against her chest. Glob, she was so mad she felt like she could literally explode. She tried to concentrate on her breathing. It was a trick she learned to calm herself down. Though, burning down this forest _would_ make her feel better…

She shook the thought away. She didn't need to do stuff like that anymore. She didn't need to destroy things to feel good. That was evil and selfish. She didn't want to be as evil and selfish as everyone made her out to be. Finn taught her that. _Finn_ …

Flame Princess groaned and buried her head in her knees. Why did her thoughts always wander to him? He was nothing but a lying jerk!

She could feel flames begin to roll off her body, but she didn't care anymore. So what if she burned down this forest? If she proved that she was just as evil as her dad raised her to be? Who cares if she accidentally killed something, or someone, innocent? It's not like any of that really mattered. And she would feel so good.

A light feminine gasp ripped her from her thoughts. She looked up from her knees to see… Nothing.

Except it wasn't nothing. She could vaguely make out the silhouette of a person. It was like she was staring at a piece of human shaped glass that distorted slightly every time it moved.

"Who's there? Show yourself, coward!" Phoebe demanded. She quickly stood up and went into a fighting stance. She wouldn't be ambushed so easily.

"Relax, it's just me," said the feminine voice. The person quickly moved to tap an invisible button on what she could only guess was their arm. Then the illusion shattered. There stood Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum, in all her pink glory.

Flame Princess' eyes narrowed distrustfully at the candy monarch. She didn't know much about her, just that she was a close friend of Finn's. Why would one of Finn's friends be spying on her?

"What are you doing? Explain yourself!" she exclaimed. She was still ready for a fight.

Bonnibel sighed. This wasn't going as smoothly as she'd hoped. "I was just conducting some research on you," she said. As if to prove her point, she pushed another button on the strange device that was stuck to her arm. Suddenly, multiple video cameras and microphones that were once invisible appeared all around the flaming girl.

Phoebe's body tensed as she looked at the equipment. "Why do you need videos of me? You're a creep!" she shouted.

"I'm collecting data on your elemental matrix," Princess Bubblegum calmly explained. "Look, there isn't much outsiders know about fire elementals. But from what little I've been able to gather over the years, especially from _you_ , you're very dangerous. And since I can no longer trust that Finn will keep an eye on you, I need to do it myself. I need to determine how unstable your elemental matrix really is. Then I'll stabilize it."

"So you're going to follow me around with cameras? I don't want you to!" Phoebe exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter what you want! You're too dangerous to wander around Ooo unsupervised," Bonnie hissed. She then sighed, taking a moment to recollect her calm, diplomatic façade. "Though, if you agree to let me run some tests on you, I won't need to spy on you. I'll get the information I need out of you faster. I can learn what emotions set you off, and extinguish them. That should, in theory, stabilize your matrix,"

Phoebe thought about it for a moment. Extinguish her emotions? She wouldn't feel so horrible anymore…

She was about to agree, but then she paused. Would she be able to keep her pleasant emotions? And how could she trust this woman, a _stranger_ , to tamper only with her emotions? She couldn't even trust her ex- _boyfriend_.

"No," she finally answered. "You can shove those tests up your patoot. I'm not letting you mess with me,"

Bonnibel groaned in annoyance. "Well, you can't stay in Ooo unsupervised with how you are now. You're too big of a threat—"

"Fine then. I won't stay in Ooo," Flame Princess declared, cutting the older woman off.

"That's not what I meant," Bonnie said. Then she snorted. "And _please_ , you aren't leaving Ooo,"

"Watch me!" Phoebe hissed. She turned around and began to stomp off.

"You can't just leave Ooo! You aren't a skilled adventurer! You won't make it out there on your own! Just let me run my tests!" the pink woman shouted after her.

The fire elemental ignored her. She stomped further into the woods and out of the candy monarch's sight.

Bonnibel sighed. There was no sense in trying to argue with such a stubborn teenager. The fifteen year old would both turn around eventually and let her conduct her tests, or die trying to cross the vast ocean that surrounded Ooo on all four sides. Either way this problem would solve itself.

Just then, her communicator watch went off. Finn and Jake needed her help battling some Snowa-constrictors. All thoughts of the flaming girl vanished as she boarded her large pet bird and headed to the Ice Kingdom.

* * *

Phoebe was lost.

She made it through the woods fairly quickly. She'd been through them on walks with Finn many times.

The grass lands weren't an issue either. She made it to Finn's house easily, which she walked pst. The hilly terrain was easy to navigate.

The problem came when she reached a massive desert. She had never been to this part of Ooo before. It wasn't exactly unpleasant though, the heat was actually very comfortable for her.

She wasn't sure she was going the right way, but that didn't matter. She just kept walking straight as the sun went down.

* * *

Bonnibel looked up from the formula she was working on to see Finn. He just barged in, which was unlike him, and he looked worried, which was also unlike him.

"What's up, Finn?" she greeted. She pulled off her reading glasses and set them on the lab table she was working at.

"I know this is probably a dumb question, but have you seen Flame Princess anywhere?" he asked. He sounded desperate. "I haven't seen her in _two days_. She hasn't been at her cabin. I'm worried she went back to the Fire Kingdom and got locked up again, or—"

"Relax, I know where she is. Kind of," Princess Bubblegum said.

"You do? Thank _Glob_! Is she here or something?" he asked, relief flooding his senses.

"No, she left Ooo," Bonnie sighed.

Finn froze. His body went tense. "What do you mean she _left Ooo_?" he asked.

"I mean she wandered off," she explained. "Look, don't worry. She won't actually leave Ooo. She can't. Ooo is an island, surrounded by an ocean on all four sides. She's probably already turned back by now,"

Finn paled. "You don't know that! She's very stubborn! She would try to cross it somehow! She could _die_!" he shouted.

"She won't. She isn't stupid. She'll be back within a few days, at most," the candy woman insisted.

"You should have told me exactly what she was doing as soon as she left. I would have stopped her," he hissed.

"I don't think you would have been able to," she mumbled.

* * *

The desert took about a day and a half to cross on foot with no signs of civilization. As Flame Princess camped out under the stars, she wondered if this barren landscape was even part of Ooo.

She was beyond excited to finally come across a small Kingdom. It was a port city, but after not eating for a couple of days, she was thankful for anything.

The kingdom was made out of small adobe cottages and shops. It appeared as though most of their businesses were centered on the fishing and salt from the ocean. Phoebe had never eaten fish before. It was surprisingly delicious.

The citizens of this Sand Kingdom were very pleasant and hospitable once they got over the initial confusion of having a fire elemental visitor. The only outsiders they were used to were traders, and since nobody in the Fire Kingdom thought a long journey to trade with a kingdom that's goods were centered on _water_ was worth it, most of them had met a fire elemental before.

Phoebe stayed in one of the Kingdom's small Inns for a few days while she stocked up on supplies and devised a plan on how to continue on with her journey.

She obviously wasn't crossing that ocean on her own. Turning back wasn't an option. She could walk across the shore line and look for some kind of patch of dry land to cross, but she doubted she'd find one. She couldn't fly across either; there was no telling how large this ocean was.

The only plausible choice she had was to hitch a ride on one of the boats that was docked in the port.

She went down to the docks at sunrise, carefully hovering over the wet, wooden surface. Sadly there was only one ship left in the port, a huge wooden one.

She convinced the captain to let her hitch a ride out of Ooo for all of the gold she had left, which wasn't much.

She laid down a small square of tinfoil to sit on once she got onto the ship. They set sail within the hour.

Flame Princess watched as Ooo vanished over the horizon.

* * *

 **I've had this idea stuck in my head for a while and I'm glad to finally have started writing it out.** **I've been a lot busier now that school's started back up again, so I have no idea when I'll finish the next update. I still have two other stories to work on too.**

 **While the timeline of this story and some of the events depicted in the show will be different, I will still incorporate major things like Finn's grass arm into the story later on.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


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